


Devochka Moya

by maypop



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-03
Updated: 2011-04-03
Packaged: 2017-10-17 12:50:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/177026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maypop/pseuds/maypop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In WWII three regiments of female fighter pilots were formed in the USSR. A soldier finds some things harder to give up than others, and receives some likely and unlikely comfort.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Devochka Moya

Tetyana Bashkirtseva was crying and trying to hide it. She wedged her shoulders into a crawlspace between boxes and choked on it, hiccuping and mashing her teeth to her lips with her knuckles.

"Tanushka?" The voice was familiar, and after a moment she placed it; Kateryna Braginskaya, a Party official, unranked, who'd helped her take in her uniform the first day Tetyana got here.

Tetyana curled in on herself and tried to be silent.

"Did you find her?" A hand shoved away a box, and light fell on her face.

"Tanushka?" Kateryna said. "What is-- oh."

"I know it's stupid," Tetyana said miserably. The flyaway ends of her newly-short hair brushed her face and tickled as she stared down at the thick brown braid she held. Her hands were burned now, daubed and striped in purple from handling still-hot engines, and the braid gleamed between her fingers. They'd said long hair was _unprofessional_ on a soldier. "I know I could, I could be shot down any day. I have better things to worry about." She made to drop the braid, and stopped at the last second. "I know it's stupid to be upset over this."

"No," Kateryna said. She crouched down in the little space, and put her own burned hand over Tetyana's knuckles. Her voice was a little watery, and Tetyana looked up. Her yellow hair had been chopped off just as roughly. And then--because some things were inevitable--she looked up farther to see where Kateryna's sister was. "I understand."

Natalia Braginskaya was running her fingers over Kateryna's severed braid, a look of disturbing reverence on her face.

"It's stupid," Tetyana repeated. "I'm--I'm going to war."

"It will not last forever," Kateryna said. She squeezed her knuckles. "When it's over, you can grow it back."

"My mother said my hair was just like my Grandmother's," Tetyana said and had no idea why. "She was so beautiful that in my town, they still say, as pretty as Oksana Bashkirtseva."

Kateryna sighed and pushed a little piece of hair away from Tetyana's forehead. "Come out here so I can hug you, Tanushka. Natalia," she said without looking around. "Step back, please."

Natalia glowered at the yellow rope in her fist and stepped back far enough that the pair could back out of the crawlspace.

Kateryna gathered her in--and that was probably _unprofessional_ too, but she _didn't care_. "Soon they will say, as brave as Tetyana Bashkirtseva," she murmured. "Soon they will say, what did you do in the war, while Tetyana Bashkirtseva drove off the Germans?"

Tetyana coughed at that, an awkward half laugh still caught on tears. "I will say, I had some help," she said. Kateryna squeezed and let go.

"After the war I am going to makes cakes for a week," she said, and sighed. "--I miss having enough butter. Come. It's dinner time." Tetyana hesitated. "You are not the only soldier who was upset," Kateryna added. "There will be no scorn."

Tetyana followed her out of the storage room. As she was pushing out the door a pincer-like hand caught her shoulder. Natalia was staring at her with those eyes like shell casings.

"Cakes are a good thing," Natalia said. "They will make her feel better." She raised the braid, fraying a bit at the tips now. "But when I kill one filthy German for every hair on my beautiful sister's head--" She shrugged. "I think that will make _me_ feel better."

Tetyana blinked once. Twice. "I have many sisters," she said, and looked down at the braid in her own hand. Then she looked back up at Natalia. "--I think I will have to fly many missions."

Natalia dropped her shoulder. "I will fix your haircut," she announced, and they followed Kateryna into the mess hell.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a serious boner for the Night Witches, Soviet female badass fighter pilots. They were ordered to cut their hair because long hair was unprofessional. Many of the girls took it hard. They got revenge by dropping three thousand tons of bombs on the Germans, so win some, lose some.


End file.
